Mobile Traffic Has Increased 27% This Year (Shareaholic) Based on 200,000 publishers who reach 300 million people each month, Shareaholic data shows that mobile traffic has increased 27% this year so far.
Shareaholic
It continues to climb, now owning 16.02% of traffic in September, up .07% from owning 15.95% of traffic in August.
Shareaholic
The story of mobile traffic increasing isn't inherently original - it's a trend we've seen over the past few years. But a more interesting angle to consider are the engagement needs and opportunities that abound. Mobile visitors have a 9.56% higher bounce rate than desktop visitors, and desktop visitors average 2.358 pages per visit, whereas mobile visitors average 1.979 pages per visit. With more smartphones and tablets, more mobile traffic is a given. Keeping that traffic on site long enough to take a meaningful action (share content, subscribe to content, or make a purchase from a product page) is the real key.

Women Display Growing Clout In Mobile Video Games (USA Today) Women have become major players when it comes to mobile games. They make up nearly 60% of players on mobile devices and are more likely than men to play mobile games, especially multiplayer games that involve social engagement such as Words With Friends and Draw Something. More than 6 out of 10, or 63%, of female mobile gamers play social multiplayer games, compared with 52% of men who play mobile games, according to a new survey by EEDAR. Additionally, women, it turns out, also have a strong influence on what games are played at home. The reasoning is that they are more likely to play multiplayer games with family members and are more likely to send and accept Facebook game invitations.

Does Every Marketer Need To Build An App For Mobile? (AdAge) Odds are 10% to 25% of your traffic is coming from mobile devices, whether you're intending to capture that audience or not. This percentage will continue to grow steadily. The question of whether or not you need to build a mobile app is a little less clear cut. To decide, ask yourself these three questions:

Is my audience using apps?

Am I ready to build and manage an app?

How do I avoid failure

First, set expectations. Second, plan to buy media. Even if you've worked through all of these recommendations, one more gotcha exists: the contentious issue of who should "own" the app strategy.

What CIOs Need To Understand About Apple's Passbook Service (Forbes) With billions of dollars at stake, the mobile payment market today is still muddled with multiple players but no clear, undisputed leader. There are two approaches in play: a near-field communications chip (NFC) within smartphones and app-based cloud transactions. Apple falls into the later category. Three specific things about Apple are fueling banker CIO anxiety: existing user base, integrated convenience and consumer influence. And if CIOs didn't have enough to worry about, Passbook adds a more sophisticated dimension to the game: influencing consumer choice. Passbook can geo-locate a consumer and generate a notification designed to result in a well timed transaction.

Staggering Facts, Figures and Statistics about Facebook (Jeff Bullas) Last Thursday Facebook officially announced its one billionth user. The number is sizeable and the moment is worth noting but it is the other facts and figures that accompany this fact that put into perspective how much social networks have woven themselves into the fabric of our lives. Check out this infographic:
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